Incontinence is an affliction that prevents a patient from controlling waste elimination functions. As one might expect, this condition can be quite debilitating and embarrassing and may severely limit the patient's activities.
Various techniques exist for treating incontinence in patients. One such technique is surgical implantation of an artificial sphincter. One form of artificial sphincter includes an appropriately sized inflatable cuff that is positioned around either the urethra or the rectum, depending upon the nature of the incontinence. A control pump is fluidly coupled to the cuff and to a pressure-regulating balloon, both of which are positioned within the body of the patient. Under normal conditions, the cuff is inflated which causes a compression of the urethra or the rectum, thus preventing unintentional discharge. When so desired, the patient manually actuates the control pump. Fluid is then withdrawn from the cuff and forced into the pressure-regulating balloon. As this occurs, the cuff relaxes allowing the urethra or rectum to expand and open. At this point, normal waste elimination functions are permitted. The pressure-regulating balloon contains a volume of fluid that is maintained at a relatively high pressure. The control pump is provided with a fluid resistor that allows pressurized fluid to slowly return to the cuff causing it to automatically re-inflate.
While manually-operated pump systems in conventional artificial sphincters can be useful, the patient must grasp a pump that is implanted in his scrotum and squeeze the pump bulb several times in order to void. The process may be considered burdensome and cause the patient to feel self conscious or conspicuous in public. In addition, there may be issues with over-pumping, as well as inefficiencies associated with imprecise manual pump volumes. Further, it is possible that urethral tissue health can be compromised by continuous cuff pressure.